1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a type approval test method and a type approval test system for a software defined radio terminal, a software defined radio being certified by means of the type approval test method, and an type approval test apparatus for certifying the software defined radio terminal.
2. Related Art
In order to use a wireless terminal such as a cellular phone, a PHS (Personal Handyphone System) and a wireless Local Area Network terminal regulated under IEEE802.11, a testing organization or a manufacturer has to perform a type approval test for certification of the wireless terminal in accordance with the Telecommunication Business Law. In such approval test, it is impossible to test all of the manufactured wireless terminals. Therefore, in such approval test, one terminal is used as a representative terminal on behalf of the same kind of terminals having same functions and similar structure, and this representative terminal is inspected. By testing only the representative terminal, the certification is given to each of the same kind of terminals that may have a same model number as the representative terminal.
Recently, a software-defied radio has been introduced. The software-defined radio allows a single device to adapt to different communications environments and communication systems by selecting the most appropriate protocol and frequency needed for a link. The software-defied radio works much like desktop computing, where a single hardware platform can carry out many functions based on the software applications loaded. The software-defied radio uses software to perform radio-signal processing functions instead of using resistors, capacitors, feedback loops, or application-specific integrated circuits.
In the near future, a wireless terminal which adopts the software-defined radio (hereinafter referred to as “software-defined radio terminal”) using a programmable hardware and software corresponding to each of wireless communication systems, for example, GSM, W-CDMA (UMTS), wireless local area network regulated under IEEE 802.11, installed in the hardware will be developed by a plurality of vendors. Users may use combinations of these hardware and software.
In the conventional approval test method, every time when new software is downloaded, it will be necessary to take the terminal to the testing organization and perform the approval test for the certification. Because of this, advantageous effect of the software-defined radio in which it is possible to easily perform addition or deletion of the communication system is remarkably spoiled.
The approval test method for the software-defined radio terminal is disclosed in, for example, Japanese Patent Publication Laid-Open No. 252598/2002. This publication discloses a technique in which a result of the approval test for a representative terminal is transmitted to the other terminal having the same function.
However, even in the same kind of terminal, the version of the loaded software may be different for each terminal. The kinds of the loaded software may also be different for each terminal even if the kind of terminals is the same. Therefore, it may be improper to transmit the test result of the representative terminal to the other terminals having the same functions.